Category: My Little Blue Kayak Blog

Are Your Goals Useless?

Can you believe 2017 is half over? 6 months have flown by and it is time to do a formal check in to see how I am doing with the goals I set for myself back in January. I set some finance, health, happiness and relationship goals and now we will see if I am on track, need to get in gear or need to adjust them to fit my current situation. This is a critical step to ensure my goals are not simply words on a piece of paper or ideas in my head.

I like to write down my goals and keep them in my face so I don’t neglect them or forget about them. My Google Keep Page comes up every time I turn on my computer so that is where I jotted them down. I like that I can color code it and rearrange it and check things off when completed. Unfortunately I am not computer savvy enough to move it to this post so I will need to type it over!

My Keep page kind of looks like this! Each color is a list!

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What Do You Hate to Spend Money On?

I had some friends visiting from Massachusetts last week and we had a wonderful time! These are the kind of friends who have been in my life for what seems like forever and no matter how mad we get at each other, all is forgiven over a glass of wine or a really good meal.

This friend of mine has a pet peeve bigger then Big Papi’s ability to score a home run in clinch situation. My friend refuses, absolutely refuses to pay for parking. He would rather walk across a bridge, 2 miles in the rain than fork over $5 bucks to park his car.

We jokingly talked about this while driving to go on a  hike last week. My honey and I were trying to figure out how to get to a hiking spot we have done many times but we wanted to park at the summit of the hike (where parking is free) vs at the base where parking cost  $7.00. Somehow I knew my friend would understand.

I hate shelling out good money on poopy bags for Fenway. It seems such a silly thing but why spend money on squirling away poop? I hit the jack pot over the winter when my honey and I were doing some clean up at her parents and we scored 2 boxes of unused bags that are the perfect size to take care of Fenway’s business. I think I even did a happy dance when I tucked them into the car. I should have plenty of bags on hand to get me through 2017. Yeah!

Then again, it beats buying cat litter!

Continue reading “What Do You Hate to Spend Money On?”

Do You Melt?

Do you let the weather determine your plans? Let’s go kayaking next week. Let me check the weather first. Let’s go for a bike ride. What day is the rain going to let up? Do you want to have a picnic? No, it is going to rain.

Once upon a time, I was getting together with a friend to check out the sand castles on a beach in Maine. I was getting ready to go and the weather looked a bit iffy. I called my friend and asked if she still wanted to meet up as it looked like rain. Her response was…

Do you melt?

I don’t Melt!

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Schedule It!

The long winter of 2017 is over and spring has been pretty wonderful, although a bit rainy.  I managed to plant my small garden several weeks ago which is pretty early for this area. I have tomatoes, basil, parsley, scallions, and peppers. I have been doing lots raking, weeding and planting in my own yard and with others.

Not my house, not my garden!

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Blah, Blah, Blah

Do you ever get the sense that blah, blah, blah is what people hear when you are speaking?

Do you try really hard to listen to your co-worker, your boss, your friend and your honey but they might as well be saying blah, blah, blah? Continue reading “Blah, Blah, Blah”

Are You On a Slippery Slope?

Deliberately choosing health, wealth and happiness has become my mantra, my go to approach, my new way of life. I strive to make the right decisions that keep me on the path of health, wealth and happiness. With that in mind, I am nowhere near perfect and sometimes making the right decision is a struggle that occurs in my head with the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other.

Who should I listen to today?

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Another Milestone Passed

There are some rather big milestones built into our life that we pass through as we grow and mature into adulthood and beyond. Think “Terrible Two’s”, “Sweet 16”, gaining the right to vote at 18, the right to drink at 21,  and the ability to collect Social Security at 65.

This week, I got to experience another one of these milestones that it is often neglected. The right to have a colonoscopy at the age of 50. Personally, I waited until age 51, this was not a right of passage that I was looking forward to or one that got me excited.

Time for a tantrum

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$43,000 Bucks Is Not Enough!

For the last few years, I have been reading several early retirement and financial blogs for inspiration. As I have already passed the BIG 50 milestone, extreme early retirement is not really feasible at this point but I love the concept nonetheless.

The blogs I read are written by people who maximized their income, minimized their expenses and saved like crazy. They worked incredibly hard for a period of time and socked away their money so they could retire in their 30’s. Go Google “early retirement blogs” and spend some time reading for inspiration!

Unfortunately, I do not walk in their shoes!

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Weeding Out Problems

Spring is in the air. The trees are budding, flowers are blooming and the grass is turning beautiful shades of green. I love spring! It is 5:25AM and I hear the sing song music of cardinals, robins and a few other birds I can’t identify. It sounds very busy outside my living room window.

I was out walking Fenway the other day and was feeling a bit overwhelmed. Back in March (when it was still cold and grey) I received a few phone calls from prospective yard work clients. I said “YES” to every request and my calendar has been booked pretty solid for April and May. I have never been one to take on more than I can handle but I guess Spring Fever had taken hold of me by my freshly spiked hair and gave me a good shaking.

Spring Fever grabbed me by my spiked up hair!

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Waste Not, Want Not

Did you know:

According to the USDA, the average American throws away over 200 pounds of edible food every year. Yes, I said 200 pounds.

The USDA also reports that over 13 million children under the age of 18 live in households where they are unable to consistently have access to nutritious food.

Think about those numbers for a minute. 13 million children in the US have difficulty obtaining healthy food.  13 million. After contemplating that statistic for a minute, I literally teared up. If you have even 1 drop of empathy in you, I imagine you did too.

Don’t tell anyone but I cry really easily!

Continue reading “Waste Not, Want Not”